Why Polish Banks Now Depend on Foreign Borrowers: Household Debt and 350,000 Foreign Clients

Polish banks are increasingly relying on foreign borrowers, especially Ukrainians, because the inflow of more than 350,000 foreign clients is what kept the lending market from a deeper slump amid a record 800 billion zloty in household debt.

In short

• Poland’s total household debt reached 800 billion zloty, even as the number of borrowers fell by 200,000 in a quarter, to 14.8 million.
• Over 350,000 foreigners in Poland hold loans, and 82% of that portfolio is mortgages, not consumer loans.
• Loans to foreigners grew from 15 to 34 billion zloty over three and a half years, up 45% in 2025 alone.
• The share of consolidation in cash loans rose to 57-60%: most “new” loans are actually repackaged old debt.
• The average Pole’s cash loan is 30,000 zloty against a net salary of about 7,000 zloty — nearly five months of income.

Poles’ Record Debt: 800 Billion Zloty and Fewer Borrowers

According to data from the BIK credit bureau, in the first quarter of 2026 the total debt of Polish households to banks broke through the 800 billion zloty mark — a record figure. At the same time, the number of borrowers itself fell: people’s debt to banks is rising while the number of people who owe it is shrinking. This means the credit burden on those who already use loans keeps growing — they owe banks more and more.

people’s debt to banks is rising while the number of people who owe it is shrinking

At the end of March 2026, Poland had 14,800,000 people repaying at least one loan taken from a bank or a lending company. Compared to the end of December 2025, that is 200,000 fewer — meaning the number of borrowers shrank by 200,000 in a single quarter, and the pace of that decline is significant.

Breaking down these 14.8 million by loan product reveals a different picture of stability for each. Mortgages are held by 3.6 million Poles, cash loans by 4.7 million, overdraft credit limits by 5.5 million people (the most common product), and installment loans are being paid off by 4.2 million people. Mortgages are the most stable product for banks: it is issued once, and the bank earns interest on it for 20 to 30 years. Consumer loans and overdraft limits are far less stable products, with lower and more varied amounts.

Despite the overall drop in borrower numbers, credit market analysts note that the pace of the decline has slowed compared with earlier periods.

How Foreigners Stabilized Poland’s Lending Market

Professor Rogowski partly attributes the stabilization in the number of borrowers on the Polish market to the inflow of foreigners who started using credit. In his assessment, without this inflow, the drop in the number of bank clients would have been much steeper.

The professor treats the very fact that banks issue them loans as indirect proof of solvency: a bank does not lend to someone without a stable income, meaning a significant share of these foreigners have jobs in Poland.

Portrait of a Foreign Borrower: Age, City, Loan Size

More than 350,000 foreigners use loans at Polish banks — mostly refugees from Ukraine and migrants from Belarus, who take out mortgages and cash loans. Other estimates for the same period put the number of foreigners using credit financing in Poland at around 364,000 — the discrepancy with the figure above comes from different counting methods used by credit bureaus.

The age structure of this group differs noticeably from that of Polish bank clients. The largest share — 34% of foreign borrowers — are people under 25: young people who recently entered the labor market, completed higher education, and are already solvent enough for a bank to approve them a loan. Roughly another third falls into the 25–35 age group. By comparison, the average age of a Polish mortgage borrower is 36, meaning foreigners take out loans noticeably younger. They tend to live in large cities, and it is there that they most often take out loans to buy housing.

Volumes are growing fast. From the end of 2022 to the first half of 2026, the value of loans issued to foreigners in Poland more than doubled — from 15 to 34 billion zloty. In 2025 alone, foreigners took out nearly 10 billion zloty in new loans, and the volume of loans issued to them that year grew by 45%.

What Share of Foreigners’ Loans Is Mortgages

82% of foreigners’ loan portfolio in Poland is residential mortgages, not overdraft limits or consumer purchase loans. At the end of 2025, out of a 30 billion zloty total portfolio held by foreign borrowers, 25 billion was mortgages specifically. A mortgage like this implies 20 to 30 years as a bank’s client: someone taking out a mortgage in Poland is planning to stay for the long haul, not leave next year.

The difference in behavior between the two groups of clients explains why banks are betting on foreign borrowers specifically: a mortgage client over 20 to 30 years gives the bank long-term, predictable income, while Poles’ cash loans represent a short usage cycle without a steady inflow of new clients.

Cash Loans: How Much Poles Borrow and Why

Outstanding cash loan debt in Poland stood at nearly 200 billion zloty at the end of the first quarter of 2026. In that quarter alone, banks issued 32 billion zloty worth of such loans — 12% more than a year earlier. While foreigners, Ukrainians chief among them, mostly take out mortgages, Poles — the bulk of bank clients — more often use cash loans instead. The reason is simple: people commonly run short of money before the next paycheck.

At the same time, the market is not attracting new clients — low inflow of new borrowers remains one of the segment’s key problems. The growth in volume comes not from new clients but from oversized sums taken out by existing borrowers. The average cash loan in Poland is 30,000 zloty, while the average net salary is roughly 7,000 zloty. That means, on average, a borrower owes the bank a sum equal to roughly five months of their pay.

on average, a borrower owes the bank a sum equal to roughly five months of their pay

The biggest growth in the first quarter came from large loans specifically: sums above 100,000 zloty grew by almost 29%, while loans under 5,000 zloty grew by just 7%. The same clients are taking out ever larger amounts, digging themselves into ever deeper debt.

Foreigners vs. Poles: Different Borrowing Behavior

Trait	Foreigners	Poles
Main product	Mortgage (82% of portfolio)	Cash loans
Average borrower age	Younger, 34% under 25	Around 36 for mortgage clients
Client lifespan for the bank	20 to 30 years	Short usage cycle
Volume growth	Up 45% in 2025	Up 12% year-on-year in cash loans

Data drawn from the sections on the foreign borrower profile, the mortgage portfolio, and Poles’ cash loans.

Consolidation and Refinancing: Why It’s Already Over Half the Market

Consolidation and refinancing is a mechanism by which a bank merges several of a client’s old loans into one, lowering the monthly payment by extending the repayment term. On top of that, the bank usually adds a new sum of money as well — for the borrower’s current needs.

The share of consolidation in banks’ cash lending activity grew from 49% in 2023 to 51% in 2024, and has now reached 57%. Factoring in the additional sums banks tack onto the reissued loan, the figure climbs to about 60% — meaning six out of ten loans in this segment are not new money, but repackaged old debt.

six out of ten loans in this segment are not new money, but repackaged old debt

The same logic applies in mortgages: roughly a third of new mortgage loans are taken out not to buy housing, but simply to pay off a borrower’s previous obligations. On paper, loan payments keep going, and the statistics look stable — but in practice this means some clients cannot service their debts under the original terms, and banks are reissuing that debt under a new guise.

The share of non-performing loans in banks’ portfolios, meanwhile, is holding at a record low of around 8%, nearly 3 percentage points below previous levels. It is precisely the scale of refinancing that explains why the non-payment statistics look so low: troubled debts aren’t recorded as overdue — they’re turned into new loans instead.

Young Clients and New Financial Tools Outside the Banks

More than a third of new bank clients in the first half of 2026 began their journey in the financial system not with a classic loan, but with a buy-now-pay-later purchase. The second popular tool among young people is deferred payments — effectively paying for purchases in installments without a bank involved.

Both tools are controlled by foreign tech companies, not Polish banks, and that is precisely the problem for the banking sector. The data shows that the modern path of a young person’s entry into the financial market increasingly starts with buy-now-pay-later purchases or deferred payments, only later leading to more complex credit products such as mortgages or cash loans. While this transition is happening, banks are left on the sidelines: young people are already using financial services, just not from them.

In response, banks are trying to capture young clients through apps and technology. Cezary Kocik, head of a mobile bank, stated that his bank’s average client age is the lowest in Poland — a direct result of betting on digital services instead of traditional branches.